The Vanilla Gorilla is a movie too!

I hope I don't get sued or have to change the name.....

Wow

Long time no post. Can't believe I even remember the password.

Dad

Thanks to Shell for reminding me that I have not updated my blog. I really haven't felt up to it for an understandable reason...

My father lost his battle with cancer on June 2. Now, a little over a month later I am still bitter and sad about it. I always knew I would be upset when/if either of my parents died but this has been a real bitch. The raw finality of it all is still....a bit overwhelming. I can feel the progress of healing but it is much too slow for me! I'm 37 years old, so it has been years since I have relied on dad for anything more than advice and stuff, but I am only able to think about why I miss him and not why he is better off given the painful cancer he had..... Ok this still affects me a little too much so thats all for today. Stupid emotions.

This proves blogging is just for ME

I haven't posted for months and I am surprised I feel like doing this now. Not too long ago a good friend lost her father and shared some of her feelings out here in blogger-space. Brave of her I thought. I understand a little better how using this space can help sort shit out. I have not lost my father yet, but we have been given some very bad news.

Adenocarcinoma of unknown origin with metastasis.

Cancer. We don't know where it started. Spread throughout his body.

After years of health problems related to obesity my dad made a bold move. He researched various types of bariatric surgery, found a doctor, a procedure he was comfortable with and went for it. He had to lose 100 pounds before being allowed to have the surgery but he did it. His stomach was cut completely out and small intestine re-routed to allow for some serious weight loss. One year later he's lost 300 pounds and was looking forward to a new lease on life. Now this.

He went to the doctor about 3 weeks ago with the complaint of "not feeling right". After some abnormal blood tests they decided to admit him for more tests. Several CT scans, PET scans and bone scans later here we are. Cancer. It has been extremely aggressive. It has spread to bone marrow, bone and 2 lymph nodes undetected until now. In addition to all of that it is producing a protein that is causing his own immune system to attack his red blood cells. It is so severe that he would have been dead 2 weeks ago if untreated. As it is we are being told that they will not be able to cure him. He was given a choice and has decided to fight for whatever time they can buy him. They can't even tell us if he will leave the hospital alive, but our goal is to get him camping just one more time!

Doesn't seem fair, but I guess it never is.

Medicare part D...when will the bleeding stop?

If you don't work in a pharmacy you may only have a peripheral knowledge of the HELL that is Medicare part D. I just don't have enough time to properly bitch about this! Let's just say VANILLA GORILLA NOT FREAKIN HAPPY!!!

Apprentice winner refuses to share title

Apprentice winner refuses to share title - MSNBC.com

Apparently others agree that Randal came off as a selfish ass. I know it's just a stupid show but I am still steaming over this one! I feel the same about that chick on Survivor who could have given up a car she just won to give everyone else a car and she said no. Bitch!

Randal wins Apprentice - And looks like an ass doing it

I loved both final candidates thru the entire season. I thought they were both very deserving and had no idea how Trump could possibly choose a winner. He ultimately chooses Randal and then asks if he should also hire Rebecca...And he says NO. Was all that shit about respecting her and saying she was a great talent all bullshit? Why the hell not advise Trump to hire her too? His reason?

"It's the Appren-tice Mr Trump, not the Appren-ti. "

What a tool.

Anyone else see Starship Troopers II?

It's strange that it took me so long to see it because I believe Starship Troopers was the finest movie ever made. EVER. Maybe I was afraid II wouldn't live up to the original. I was not disappointed. The movie pretty much bit the whole way through. I hated every second of it. The question is, why can't I stop replaying it in my head? Almost like remembering the one asshole at work today and not the 200 nice little old ladies I guess. But I'm kinda liking the remembering. Does that make me sick in the head? Oooh, I have a better analogy. It's like remembering an ex fondly after it's all over even though your life would have been a living fucking HELL if you had stayed with her so thank God she dumped you otherwise your life would be utterly, utterly over. Yeah that's gooood.

FINALLY!!

Air marshal guns down man at Miami airport - MSNBC.com

Someone finally got shot by an Air Marshall. You act crazy on a plane and you get shot. That's the rule.

Calm DOWN people! (holiday pharmacy rant)

I know the holidays are stressful for everyone, but why take it out on your friendly neighborhood pharmacy?

If I tell you the wait for a prescription is a hour, it is a fact. It is not a personal insult to you. I don't make that shit up because I enjoy watching your fat face spitting curse words at me.

It seems to me that a person who could poison you to death 50 different ways is not a good person to piss off or distract! I'm just saying....

When you pull up to a 2-lane drive-thru and there is 1 person at the window helping the other lane, why would you ring the damn bell? The person STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU HELPING SOMEONE ELSE will be right with you.

Speaking of drive-thru, no I won't run to the front register to grab you a pack of Kool filter-kings.

I don't know if there are any more queen size knee-hi's that are in the ad 4/$1.00. I promise.

You are not allowed to yell at me about how long it takes to fill your prescription for an acute problem when you waited 14 days to bring it in to me. You have been suffering for 2 damn weeks so you can wait another hour or so. (Also see above point about "accidental" poisoning)

NO, I DO NOT KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR COPAY IS BEFORE I CAN ACTUALLY ENTER THE INFORMATION INTO THE COMPUTER!!!!!!!!!! There is no magic gene that pharmacy people possess that tells us everyones copay.

FOXSports.com - NFL- Eagles punish, bench Owens

(I'm just playing around with the instant blogger settings.)

I know no one reads this thing but I just have to say great damn job on the Eagles in benching Terrell Owens! He is a frickin jackass!

Ok, comments are back on

but lets see how well the spam-killer tools work

Thanks a lot comment spammers

I guess I had to disable comments too because of comment spammers. What a bunch of tools you are.

Writers annoy me...not sure if it's their fault though...

I had a call from a patient/customer yesterday who was very worried about an article she read in a magazine. It was a women's magazine like Elle or Cosmo or something like that. I don't remember for sure. ANYWAY, she said there was an article in there that said if she takes ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) she will get breast cancer. I get a fair amount of calls like this where one small study reported in the lay press causes a huge uproar. I advised her that many scientific studies have outcomes that just do not apply in the real world, but I would look into it for her and call her back by Monday.

It turns out it won't even take that long! I was able to obtain a report on the study cited in the magazine and I could not believe how frickin irresponsible the magazine was to report the findings like it did. My patient read the title to me on the phone. It read:

"Regular Ibuprofen use Associated with Breast Cancer"

Just that sentence alone is scary as hell. Especially for someone with a family history of breast cancer like my her. Yes, it is true that in this study there was a statistically significant increase in breast cancer in women who took ibuprofen. However, a blanket statement like the above title is misleading. At least according to me.

The University of Southern California researchers, who published their findings in the June 1 Journal of the National Cancer Institute, concluded that their data provides only slim evidence to support any ibuprofen-breast cancer causal effect. That means who knows if it's actually ibuprofen that added to breast cancer risk. It might be something completely unrelated to the actual medicine. The authors even put up some theories that may explain the findings. People who have conditions that require daily painkillers are more likely to be treated by physicians and thus have better chance for early discovery (hence a higher rate of reported breast cancer). They also theorized that some women took ibuprofen to relieve early symptoms of breast cancer, although this one was less likely because early breast cancer tends to be asymptomatic.
Here is another nail in the panic coffin, the study included zero data on the doses used by the study participants. They just surveyed for daily ibuprofen (and aspirin and tylenol) use. It would be harder to establish a causal relationship without the doses used. Incedently, the aspirin and tylenol group showed no increase in breast cancer incidence, but I will still recommend ibuprofen when appropriate.

Anyway, long story short, don't believe every frickin word you read in Cosmo eh? I wouldn't be HALF as annoyed if the article mentioned just those few extra facts. You know,it just occured to me that I ranted and bitched and complained, but I don't really know what the article in the woman's magazine actually says. I just had the title read to me. Hmmmm. It's possible I could have wasted a LOT of time on nothing because she didn't read the whole fucking article.

God DAMN, customers annoy me.


FYI:
Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Marshall SF, et al. 2005. Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Use and Breast Cancer Risk by Stage and Hormone Receptor Status. JNCI; 97: 805-812

Work rots (as usual)

Hi reader! You may have noticed a lack of posts lately. The reason is my job. Lately it has been like I would imagine a shit farm would be. No offense to shit farmers though. I only feel like blogging "mostly" when I am feeling positive. (Pharmacy Rants notwithstanding) There has not been much to feel positive about at work lately, hence the dearth of postings. (I love using the word "hence". I try to work it into every conversation, hence the "hence" above.)

Anyway, I am feeling a little better about work so I thought I would take advantage and whip out a little post for you. So this little post was better than nothing right?

Don't answer that.

On a lighter note...

We are spending a few nights in Kansas City just to get away for awhile. Great news! The kids are with us! PLEEEEEASE for the love of all that is holy let me remember that I like them! When will the whining stop? WHEN?

I don't care what anyone says...firing people sucks

There have been some "inequities" in the cash registers in the pharmacy and the big bosses needed to find how it was happening. The Loss Prevention man came in after hours and I helped set up some extra surveillance.

(While we were doing this I discovered a camera I didn't even know was there! Even though I had not done anything, it was pretty chilling to realize that if I was up to something they would have caught me!...No guilty conscience here...I swear)

Anyway, I assured my boss and the loss prevention supervisor that we were going to find out that it was some kind of innocent mistake. I even went so far as bet breakfast on it. My boss took me up on it right away. He thought had it all figured out. Unfortunately the new camera proved him right. The employee was fired a few days later. The shittiest part about it was this person was not let go before having one last shift. So I had the pleasure of working a whole evening with someone, a person I considered a friend as much as an employee, and I knew it would be their last night. I got through the night pretty well but it was still pretty surreal. I know this person violated my trust by stealing from the company, but it really doesn't make me feel any better at all.

My boss is never going to collect that fucking breakfast either.

Caption contest

I hate to be one of those lame ass parent types who gushes about how awesome his kids are. (Actually if you knew me offline you would know I have a really hard time admitting when I like my kids.) Anyway this is one of my all time favorite pictures of "monkey 2". What exactly do you guys think he might have been thinking?

Fascist humor

I gotta give credit to Maddox. What I don't understand is...why the hell do I think this is so funny? Am I a closet fascist? Do I even know what a fascist is? Ahhhh the questions the questions!

Damn, the pharmacy didn't burn down

Sort of a false alarm today. The "fire" was some dudes working on the roof Air Conditioning units. They were doing some soldering and got some smoke and solder too close to a sensor and blammo! Off goes the fire alarm. Caused a little excitement but that's it. Ok, I have to admit I am glad it didn't burn down. I may bitch about my job, but I like it well enough.

There. I said it.

The roof! The roof! The roof is on fire!

I just got a call from the pharmacy..apparently the roof is actually on fire! It was everything I could do not to say, "We don't need no water let the mother-fucker burn! Burn mother-fucker, BURRRRN!"

(He had already told me that everyone was out and safe by the way)

I guess I am going in a little early today.

Women can be mean too

We have a 4th year pharmacy student with us this month in the pharmacy. He is doing a required clerkship with us where you basically work as slave labor 40 hours a week and you pay tuition for it. During the last week of the rotation we try to have a little potluck lunch in honor of the student as a thank you of sorts. Small compensation, but we like any excuse to bring food into the pharmacy. The pharmacists especially like this because we pretty much never get any time off for lunches. Having food nearby at least guarantees a 20-second gorging in between phone calls. One of the pharmacy techs brings a crock-pot with some kind of beef and potato stew. Here is where the fun (and meanness) happened. Apparently one of the other techs thought it was too bland. On one of her breaks she bought on of those spice envelopes with chili powder and stuff in it. She unceremoniously dumped the whole package into the crock pot, stirs it up, tastes it and declares, "That's better!". I just can't get that imagary out of my head. Holding the spice envelope over the pot, looking the other person right in the eyes, and dumping the whole thing in right in front of everyone else with a "What are YOU gonna do about it?" look on her face. It's the female equivalent of a guy doing a crossover dribble on the basketball court, dunking the ball over your head and declaring that he did it all because he just slept with your mom the night before.

In yo FACE bland-soup-maker!!

Maybe you had to be there.

Why did I choose pharmacy?

After reading my pharmacy rants (part 1 of many to come), a fellow blogger asked me why I chose pharmacy as a profession. I have no quick and easy answer to that at all...but maybe I am trying to overcomplicate it. I already worked at a large chain drugstore through high school and college, and the pharmacists there were always trying to encourage me to go to pharmacy school. I never really took it seriously until I found out how much money they made. That's pretty much it. Yes the story is slightly more complicated than that, but that's pretty much it.

The longer version is not much longer.... I graduated from high school in 1987. I worked for a major drug chain for most of high school and all of college..stockboy, assistant mgr, etc. I was lucky enough to get a full ride to State U. about a year after high school but I still needed some extra money (still just a stockboy you see). I joined the Army National Guard in 1989 and took a year off school. I also figured it would help me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. It did enhance my work ethic but still didn't help me find my "career". I never really found anything that interested me enough to make it my life's work. I just went back to school and tried to learn as much as possible. I tried education (physics/chemistry and earth science..I was going to be a science teacher!) and accounting (going to be a CPA). Neither of those managed to hold my interest for various reasons. Next I tried radiography, which is basically taking x-rays, MRI's, CT scans, etc. It was interesting and challenging and I liked it except for 2 things. First, the money was less than I was looking for...around $20,000 a year 6 years ago. (I was making that as an assistant manager at the drugstore.) Second, and most important, I came upon a huge realization that I did not really like sick people very much. Mostly it was the getting bodily fluids hurled at me in various ways. I just didn't feel like I cared enough about the people I was helping. I needed to find a way I could do something mentally challenging but also had a little extra layer between me and patients. Thus I began to consider pharmacy. I spent 3 semesters kicking my own ass taking full loads of science classes and pre-req's for pharmacy. Those classes were awesome and I knew I was on to something. I liked Genetics, Biology and Microbiology so much that I made my "backup" major Biology with the idea that I would become a criminologist (THIS WAS YEARS BEFORE CSI I SWEAR!!!) or possibly work in genetics research. I was accepted into pharmacy school in 1995 however, and graduated with a Doctor of Pharmacy in 1999.

So in a nutshell, years of retail work, many changes of college major and a dash of military disclipline = me the pharmacist.

Can you get fired for blogging?

(www.msn.com) How stupid is this article? Of COURSE you can get fired for blogging. What boss would want you spend all of your time sitting on your ass ignoring work stuff so you can cry about how shitty you are being treated? Can you get fired for masturbating at work? I hope so! (The counter-tops are too high in my pharmacy for me to get caught, but that's not the point!)

Pharmacy rants (Part 1 of probably too many)

To my dear, dear customers:

How the fuck is it my fault that you...

• have 3 or 4 last names and never give us the right one when picking up your prescription?
• have changed your phone number 5 times since the last time you gave it to us and then expect us to magically have it on file?
• waited 4 days before bringing me your "emergency" prescription then bitch about having to wait 20 minutes?
• don't have your card or any other insurance information but still expect me to know all of the intricate details of your copays and deductibles?
• have been out of refills for 4 weeks and you waited until 9 pm on a Friday night to request a refill then bitch because you have to wait 3 days due to doctors not working the weekends?
• have not seen your doctor in 2 years so they deny all refills even though you "have" to have your birth control pills?
• ate all of your Vicodins at lunch and they were supposed to last you 3 weeks?
• pull up to the pharmacy and look at me like I'm an asshole when I tell you there is a charge and you have NO money with you? Really, how the fuck can you pull up to the pharmacy where you have had a copay for 10 years, and have NO money on you? Did you expect me to fuckin' GIVE you your herpes medicine for free???? Can you try something for me? Go to fucking McDonald's, order 25 bucks worth of shit and then look at them like they are a bunch of assholes when they want their money. If they decide that you must need to have everything for free because you don't have any fucking money then make your next trip to my pharmacy and get some fucking free herpes medicine!